Anticor targets Nasser al-Khelaïfi: TV rights case escalates

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·26 de marzo de 2026

Anticor targets Nasser al-Khelaïfi: TV rights case escalates

Nasser al-Khelaïfi, 52, president of Paris Saint-Germain and executive at beIN Media Group, once again finds himself under scrutiny. According to the shared source, backed by reporting from L’Équipe, Anticor has reported a possible conflict of interest to the Paris prosecutor’s office regarding Ligue 1 TV rights in 2024.

“The association suspects him of using his different hats”

“According to our information, the Anticor association filed a report with the Paris prosecutor’s office on March 3 against Nasser al-Khelaïfi for illegal taking of interests. The association suspects him of having used his different hats — PSG president, president of beIN Media Group, and member of the LFP Board of Directors — to ‘try to influence the board’s decision in favor of the company he heads.’ To understand this, we have to go back to the summer of 2024. Vincent Labrune was then leading discussions on the sale of Ligue 1 TV rights, and the LFP president was hoping for 700 million euros for domestic rights alone. But the negotiations collapsed.

For Anticor, these exchanges show that NAK wore several hats and, during ‘this preparatory meeting ahead of the board vote,’ ‘exerted strong pressure on the other Ligue 1 presidents so that the offer put forward by beIN Sports would be accepted.’

“NAK considers the basis of this complaint ‘absurd’”

“Contacted for comment, NAK’s entourage considers the basis of this complaint ‘absurd’: ‘It was the clubs, league representatives, and even political figures who pressured beIN to finance the broadcast of this match, not the other way around (…) Why would Mr. Al-Khelaïfi have pressured anyone to favor beIN when there was no other broadcaster and it was the league and the clubs that were desperately looking for a broadcaster to buy the final match?’

As for conflicts of interest, they added, it is Yousef al-Obaidly, president of beIN Sports France, who exercises full operational and executive control over the company, not Mr. Al-Khelaïfi.” To shield himself from any criticism, Nasser al-Khelaïfi had recused himself from the July 2024 vote.

“A cycle that seems to repeat itself every six months”

He also has no connection with LFP Media, the entity created to market the TV rights, and sat on the league’s board like many other Ligue 1 presidents. This alleged complaint — of which no one was informed — once again illustrates an attempt to rewrite history in order to pin other people’s decisions and failures on Nasser al-Khelaïfi. A cycle that seems to repeat itself every six months. Nasser al-Khelaïfi has never failed in his duty of impartiality, has remained independent, and has scrupulously ensured that he avoided any situation involving a conflict of interest — he has always been driven solely by the desire to defend the general interest of French football.”

The heart of the case is clear: Anticor believes the Parisian boss may have blurred the lines between his roles at Paris Saint-Germain, beIN, and the LFP Board of Directors at the time of the explosive TV rights issue. The association suspects that he used this position to weigh in favor of beIN’s offer during the summer of 2024, at a time when the league was searching for a way out after the collapse of the negotiations Vincent Labrune had hoped would succeed.

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On the other side, Al-Khelaïfi’s camp completely rejects that interpretation. His entourage insists instead that beIN was pushed to step in, recalls that NAK withdrew from the July 2024 vote, and also points to Yousef al-Obaidly’s executive role in the group’s operational management.

What makes the matter even more serious is the broader context: the TV rights fiasco has already damaged Ligue 1’s image, and this new episode immediately revives suspicions, score-settling, and political readings surrounding its governance. Anticor’s accusation therefore lands hard, but NAK’s defense rests on a simple idea: he did not favor beIN; on the contrary, he was responding to a situation already in crisis.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.